In response to Washington’s allegation that it was behind the Sony Pictures cyberattack, Pyongyang demanded a joint inquiry into the matter. North Korea claims it can prove it was not involved.
If the US has the goods, then it should welcome this offer. Does anybody think they have the goods? Your JoeDog does not. The information they’ve revealed thus far is weak and void of detail. Apparently the good stuff is classified. We’re supposed to take them at their word.
Your JoeDog has a hard time taking governments at their word. He never bought the case against Saddam Hussein and thus far he remains unconvinced on this one. If North Korea was involved, then declassify the evidence and display it to the public. If not, then Your JoeDog will continue to call bullshit.
Here’s what we know:
- On November 21st, the perpetrators contacted Sony executives and demanded ransom. The group called itself “God’sApstls.” There was no mention of the supposedly offensive Seth Rogen film.
- Soon after that, we learned about the Guardians of Peace. Images of hacked Sony Computers appeared on the Internet in which a splash screen exclaimed, “Hacked by #GOP”
- On December 1st, a representative of the GOP contacted CSO. The group claimed it had no ties to North Korea and no aims to stop The Interview as Sony suggested.
- On December 9th, Joe Demarest, assistant director with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s cyber division, told a conference there was no attribution to North Korea. This means they couldn’t find a trail of crumbs back to the attackers.
- Yesterday, the FBI announced that Pyongyang was behind the attack. It staked its claim based on a code signature and IP addresses it claims were hard coded inside the malware.
So somehow we’ve gone from a ransom note by God’sApstls to a cyberattack from Pyongyang. Are we supposed to think North Korea was demanding ransom and taunting Sony before it got around to the movie it found so offensive? Certainly North Korea is a strange place, but that doesn’t make sense even for them….